Importing graphics

InCopy allows you to import graphics into existing frames. This is especially useful where content is created before the layout, because you can choose the graphics for your articles as you write.

You can import graphics into existing frames only. Only InDesign users can create graphics frames. In standalone InCopy documents, you can insert a graphic into the default text frame, making it an inline graphic.

InCopy supports the same wide range of graphics file formats as InDesign, including graphics created using Adobe® Illustrator® 8.0 and later, bitmap formats such as PDF, PSD, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, and BMP, and vector formats such as EPS. You can even import InDesign (INDD) pages as images. Other supported formats include DCS, PICT, WMF, EMF, PCX, PNG, and Scitex CT (.SCT).

Notes on placing graphics in InCopy

When you import graphics into InCopy, keep the following in mind:

• For managed content, you must check out a frame before you can import a graphic into it.

• Once you import a graphic, you can transform (move, scale, rotate, shear) it inside the frame, fit the graphic to the frame, and control the graphic’s appearance. You can also tag a selected frame for future XML use by selecting commands from the context menu.

• When InDesign users create a new frame, they specify whether it is a text, graphics, or unassigned frame. InCopy users cannot change this frame type within InCopy. Therefore, if you try to import a graphic into a text frame, for example, it may appear as a large inline graphic.

• You can select and modify the graphics but not the frames in InCopy, unless they are nested or inline frames. Only InDesign users can modify graphics frames.

• You can place, paste, or drag graphics into an anchored, floating, or inline graphics frame. You can import a graphic into a text frame only if that frame has an active insertion point or is an inline graphics frame.

• If you import a graphic into a nested frame, the graphic is imported into the deepest-level frame under the pointer. Nested frames that contain graphics, unlike top-level frames, can be selected with the Position tool. (See Position tool overview.)

• If an effect, such as transparency, drop shadow, or feathering, is applied to a frame in InDesign, it will be visible in an assignment file or InDesign (.indd) file open in InCopy. It will not be visible in a linked (.icml) file open in InCopy.

Place a graphic in an InCopy document

Drag a graphic into a frame

Paste a graphic into a frame

Create an inline graphic

Import options for graphics

The options for importing graphics vary depending on the type of image being imported. To display import options, make sure that Show Import Options is selected in the Place dialog box.

Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) import options

When you place an EPS graphic (or a file saved with Illustrator 8.0 or earlier) and select Show Import Options in the Place dialog box, you’ll see a dialog box containing these options:

This option tells InCopy to read links from OPI comments for images included (or nested) in the graphic.

Deselect this option if you’re using a proxy-based workflow and plan to have your service providers perform the image replacement using their OPI software. When this option is deselected, InDesign preserves the OPI links but does not read them. When you print or export, the proxy and the links are passed on to the output file.

Select this option if you’re using a proxy-based workflow and you want InDesign, instead of your service provider, to perform image replacement when you output the final file. When you select this option, the OPI links appear in the Links panel.

Also select this option when you import EPS files containing OPI comments that are not part of a proxy-based workflow. For example, if you import an EPS file containing OPI comments for an omitted TIFF or bitmap image, you’ll want to select this option so that InDesign can access the TIFF information when you output the file.

Regardless of whether this option is selected, a placed EPS file includes a clipping path in InDesign. However, deselecting this option may result in a different bounding box size.

This creates a low-resolution bitmap representation of an image when drawing the file to the screen. The following settings control how the proxy will be generated:

Some EPS images contain an embedded preview. Select this option to generate the proxy image of the existing preview. If a preview does not exist, the proxy will be generated by rasterizing the EPS to an offscreen bitmap.

Select this option to ignore the embedded preview. This option is typically slower but provides the highest-quality results.

Bitmap import options

You can apply color-management options to individual imported graphics when using color-management tools with a document. You can also import a clipping path or an alpha channel saved with an image created in Photoshop. Doing so lets you directly select an image and modify its path without changing the graphics frame.

When you place a PSD, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, or BMP file and select Show Import Options in the Place dialog box, you’ll see a dialog box containing these options:

If this option isn’t available, the image wasn’t saved with a clipping path, or the file format doesn’t support clipping paths. If the bitmap image doesn’t have a clipping path, you can create one in InDesign.

Select an alpha channel to import the area of the image saved as an alpha channel in Photoshop. InCopy uses the alpha channel to create a transparent mask on the image. This option is available only for images that contain at least one alpha channel.

Click the Color tab to view the following options:

If Use Document Default is selected, leave this option unchanged. Otherwise, choose a color source profile that matches the gamut of the device or software used to create the graphic. This profile enables InDesign to properly translate its color to the gamut of the output device.

Choose a method for scaling the color range of the graphic to the color range of the output device. Typically, you’ll choose Perceptual (Images) because it accurately represents colors in photographs. The Saturation (Graphics), Relative Colorimetric, and Absolute Colorimetric options are better for areas of solid color; they don’t reproduce photographs well. Rendering Intent options aren’t available for bitmap, grayscale, and index-color mode images.

Portable Network Graphics (.png) import options

When you place a PNG image and select Show Import Options in the Place dialog box, you’ll see a dialog box with three sections of import settings. Two sections contain the same options available for other bitmap image formats. The other section, PNG Settings, contains the following settings:

This option is enabled by default when a PNG graphic includes transparency. If an imported PNG file contains transparency, the graphic interacts only where the background is transparent.

If a PNG graphic does not contain a file-defined background color, this option will be selected by default. However, it is only enabled if Use Transparency Information is activated. If this option is selected, white is used as the background color when applying transparency information.

If a PNG graphic was saved with a non-white background color, and Use Transparency Information is selected, this option is selected by default. If you don’t want to use the default background color, click White Background to import the graphic with a white background, or deselect Use Transparency Information to import the graphic without any transparency (displaying areas of the graphic that are currently transparent). Some image-editing programs can’t specify a non-white background color for PNG graphics.

Select this option to adjust the gamma (midtone) values of a PNG graphic as you place it. This option lets you match image gamma to the gamma of the device you will use to print or display the graphic (such as a low-resolution or non‑PostScript printer or computer monitor). Deselect this option to place the image without applying any gamma correction. By default, this option is selected if the PNG graphic was saved with a gamma value.

This option, available only if Apply Gamma Correction is selected, displays the gamma value that was saved with the graphic. To change the value, type a positive number from 0.01 to 3.0.

When PNG files are imported, the settings in the Image Import Options dialog box are always based on the selected file, not on the default or last-used settings.

Acrobat (.pdf) and Illustrator (.ai) import options

The layout, graphics, and typography in a placed PDF are preserved. As with other placed graphics, you cannot edit a placed PDF page within InCopy . You can control the visibility of layers in a layered PDF. You can also place more than one page of a multipage PDF.

When you place a PDF that was saved with passwords, you’ll be prompted to enter the required passwords. If the PDF file was saved with usage restrictions (for example, no editing or printing), but no passwords, you can place the file.

When you place a PDF (or a file saved with Illustrator 9.0 or later) and select Show Import Options in the Place dialog box, you’ll see a dialog box containing the following options:

Preview a page in the PDF before you place it. If you’re placing a page from a PDF that contains multiple pages, click the arrows, or type a page number under the preview image to preview a specific page.

Specify the pages you want to place: the page displayed in the preview, all pages, or a range of pages. For Illustrator files, you can specify which artboard to place.

Specify how much of the PDF page to place:

Places the PDF page’s bounding box, or the minimum area that encloses the objects on the page, including page marks. The Bounding Box (Visible Layers Only) option uses the bounding box only of the visible layers of the PDF file. The Bounding Box (All Layers) option places the bounding box of the entire layer area of the PDF file, even if layers are hidden.

Places the PDF only in the area defined by a rectangle that the author created as a placeable artwork (for example, clip art).

Places the PDF only in the area that is displayed or printed by Adobe Acrobat.

Identifies the place where the final produced page will be physically cut in the production process, if trim marks are present.

Places only the area that represents where all page content should be clipped, if a bleed area is present. This information is useful if the page is being output in a production environment. Note that the printed page may include page marks that fall outside the bleed area.

Places the area that represents the physical paper size of the original PDF document (for example, the dimensions of an A4 sheet of paper), including page marks.

Select this option to reveal text or graphics that fall beneath the PDF page in the InCopy layout. Deselect this option to place the PDF page with an opaque white background.

InDesign (.indd) import options

InDesign preserves the layout, graphics, and typography in a placed INDD file. However, the file is treated as an object, and you can’t edit it, although you can control the visibility of layers and choose which pages of a multi-page INDD file to import.

When you place an InDesign file and select Show Import Options in the Place dialog box, you’ll see a dialog box containing the following options:

Preview a page before you place it. You can type a page number or click the arrows to preview a page in a multi-page document.

Specify the pages you want to place: the page displayed in the preview, all pages, or a range of pages.

Specify how much of the page or pages to place, the page itself or the bleed or slug areas on the pasteboard.

Fit a graphic to its frame

When you place or paste a graphic into a frame, it appears at the upper left corner of the frame by default. If the frame and its content are different sizes, you can use the Fitting commands to achieve a perfect fit.

Links panel overview

All files placed in a document are listed in the Links panel. These include both local (on disk) files and assets that are managed on a server. However, files that are pasted from a website in Internet Explorer do not display in this panel.

In InCopy, the Links panel also displays linked stories. When you select a linked story in the Links panel, the Link Info section displays information such as the number of notes, the managed status, and the status of tracked changes.

When the same graphic appears several times in the document, the links are combined under a disclosure triangle in the Links panel. When a linked EPS graphic or InCopy document contains links, the links are also combined under a disclosure triangle.

A linked file can appear in the Links panel in any of the following ways:

An up-to-date file is blank in the Status column.

This icon means that the version of the file on disk is more recent than the version in your document. For example, this icon appears if you import a Photoshop graphic into InCopy , and then you or someone else edits and saves the original graphic in Photoshop.

A slightly different version of the Modified icon appears when a graphic is modified and one or more instances are updated while others are not.

The graphic is no longer in the location from which it was imported, although it may still exist somewhere. Missing links can happen if someone deletes the original file or moves it to a different folder or server after it’s been imported. You can’t know whether a missing file is up to date until its original is located. If you print or export a document when this icon is displayed, the file may not print or export at full resolution.

Embedding the contents of a linked file suspends management operations for that link. If the selected link is currently in an “edit in place” operation, this option is not enabled. Unembedding the file restores management operations to the link.

If a linked object does not appear on a specific document page, the following codes indicate where the object appears: PB (pasteboard), MP (parent page), OV (overset text), and HT (hidden text).

For a video tutorial on using the Links panel, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4027_id.

Use the Links panel

• To display the Links panel, choose Window > Links. Each linked file and automatically embedded file is identified by name.
• To select and view a linked graphic, select a link in the Links panel and then click the Go To Link button , click the page number of the link in the Page column, or choose Go To Link in the Links panel menu. InCopy centers the display around the selected graphic. To view a hidden object, you show the layer (or condition if it’s an anchored object).
• To expand or collapse nested links, click the triangle icon to the left of the link. Nested links occur when the same graphic appears several times in the document or when the linked EPS graphic or InCopy document contains links.
• To sort links in the panel, click the category title at the top of the Links panel to sort by that category. Click the same category again to reverse the order. For example, if you click the Page category, the links appear in their order from the first page to the last page. If you click Page again, the links are sorted from last page to first. Use Panel Options to add columns to the Links panel.

Work with Links panel columns

You can display additional categories, such as Creation Date and Layer, in the Links panel to display more information about the graphics. For each category, you can determine whether the information appears as a column in the Links panel and in the Link Info section at the bottom of the Links panel.

You can change the order of columns by selecting a column and dragging it to a different location. Drag the column boundaries to change the column width. Click a category title to sort the links by that category in ascending order. Click again to sort in descending order.

Change the Links panel rows and thumbnails

Display link information

The Link Info section of the Links panel lists information about the selected linked file.

View metadata via the Links panel

If a linked or embedded file contains metadata, you can view the metadata using the Links panel. You cannot edit or replace metadata associated with a linked file.

Update, restore, and replace links

Use the Links panel to check the status of any link, or to replace files with updated or alternate files.

When you update or reestablish (relink) a link to a file, any transformations performed in InCopy are preserved (if you choose Relink Preserved Dimensions in the File Handling preferences). For example, if you import a square graphic and rotate it 30°, and then you relink it to an unrotated graphic, InCopy rotates it 30° to match the layout of the graphic it’s replacing.

Choose how relinked graphics are scaled

When you relink to replace one graphic with a different source file, you can keep the image dimensions of the file that’s being replaced, or you can display the incoming file in its actual dimensions.

Update modified links

InDesign first looks for a missing link in the folder in which another file has been relinked in the current session. Next, it looks for a link in the same folder where the document is located. If it’s still not found, it looks in the parent folder of the document.

Modified links are also called “out of date” links.

Replace a link with a different source file

Restore missing links

Find missing links

By default, InCopy checks for missing links and tries to resolve them when you open a document. Two preference options let InCopy check for and find missing links automatically when you open a document.

If you turn off this option, InCopy opens the document immediately, and the link statuses remain pending until links are determined to be up-to-date, missing, or modified. If you turn on this option, InCopy checks for modified or missing links.

If you turn off this option, InCopy does not attempt to resolve the missing links. You may want to turn off this option if links slow performance to a server or if unexpected linkings occur. This option is dimmed if Check Links Before Opening Document is turned off.

Use the Search For Missing Links command to search for and resolve missing links in your document. This command is useful if you turned off the preferences option that checks for missing links when you open a document, and now you have missing links. This command is also useful if you mount a server where images are stored after opening a document.

• To change link settings, open the File Handling section of the Preferences dialog box, and determine whether the Check Links Before Opening Document and Find Missing Links Before Opening Document options are selected.
• To let InCopy attempt to resolve missing links, choose Utilities > Search For Missing Links from the Links panel menu.

  This command is dimmed if the document contains no missing links.

Specify a default Relink folder

Copy links to a different folder

Use the Copy Link(s) To command to copy graphics files to a different folder and redirect the links to the copied files. This command is especially useful for moving files to a different drive, such as moving files from a DVD to a hard drive.

Relink to a different folder

When you use the Relink To Folder command, you can point to a folder that contains files with the same names as your out-of-date links. For example, if your current links point to low-resolution images, you can specify a different folder that contains high-resolution images. You can specify a different extension for the files, allowing you to change links from .jpg to .tiff, for example.

The Relink To Folder command is dimmed in a managed InCopy story unless the story is checked out.

Relink files with different file extensions

The Relink File Extension command lets you replace images based on file extensions. For example, if you have several JPEG images in your document, you can replace them with PSD files. The files with different extensions must be in the same folder as the linked files being replaced.

Replace an imported file using the Place command

Copy the link pathname

You can copy either the full path of the linked image or the platform style path. Copying the full path of the image is useful for notifying team members where art is located. For example, you can copy the full path and paste it into an email message. Copying the platform path is useful for scripting or for specifying image fields in a data merge.

Edit original artwork

The Edit Original command lets you open most graphics in the application in which you created them so that you can modify them as necessary. Once you save the original file, the document in which you linked it is updated with the new version.

Edit original artwork using the default application

By default, InCopy relies on the operating system to determine which application is used when opening the original.

Edit original artwork using a different application

Control layer visibility in imported images

When you import Photoshop PSD files, layered PDFs, and INDD files, you can control the visibility of top-level layers. Adjusting layer visibility in InCopy lets you vary an illustration depending on context. For example, in a multilanguage publication, you can create a single illustration that includes one text layer for each language.

You can adjust layer visibility either when you place a file or by using the Object Layer Options dialog box. In addition, if the Photoshop file contains layer comps, you can display the desired comp.

Set layer visibility

Set layer visibility for placed AI, PSD, PDF, and INDD files

After you place a Photoshop PSD or layered PDF, an Illustrator AI file, or an InDesign INDD file, you can control the visibility of its layers by using the Object Layer Options dialog box. If the Photoshop PSD file contains layer comps, you can choose which comp you want to display. In addition, you can choose whether to maintain the visibility settings or match the settings of the original file each time you update the link.

Importing InDesign (.indd) pages

Using the Place command, you can import pages from one InDesign document into another. You can import a page, a page range, or all of the pages in the document. The pages are imported as objects (much the same way that PDFs are imported).

Add pages in your document to hold the pages you want to import. After you choose File > Place and select an INDD file, you can choose Show Import Options and then choose which pages to import, which layers to make visible, and how to crop the imported pages. You can scroll in the Preview window to examine the thumbnail pages closely. The page or pages you select are loaded in the graphics icon. If you place multiple pages, InCopy loads the graphics icon with the following page so you can import pages one after the other.